The National Research Council of Canada’s (NRC) online tool, Performance-Graded Asphalt Cement under a Changing Climate (PGAC3), is tailor-made for the needs of airports in Canada. It was developed under the Transportation Asset Risk Assessment (TARA) Program to help federally-owned Canadian airports study and identify the asphalt cement’s required performance grade (PG) in view of future projected climatic conditions of the site location.
By providing an option to compare the results from 2 potential representative concentration pathway (RCP) levels, PGAC3 can determine the minimum required PG until the year 2100. This tool allows users to create and analyse individual climate scenarios within a project, based on the second generation Canadian Earth System Model’s (CanESM2) embedded climate-change database of statistically downscaled daily minimum and maximum temperatures.
It also allows for adjustments to a high temperature PG, or grade bumping, where needed under heavy/slow moving aircrafts.
Current users of the tool seeking more information about other specific areas of interest, directions on how to perform similar studies, or other airports who would like to enquire about developing a version of the tool to meet their needs, please contact us.
Users must read and accept the licence agreement below before using the PGAC3 tool/application.
PGAC3 is developed and provided as is by the National Research Council of Canada.